The voice in my head

Bob Veillette is a Connecticut journalist who suffered a massive stroke in April 2006 that left him with locked-in syndrome – a condition that leaves a person locked inside his or her body, paralyzed below the eyes but totally cognizant of the world around them. Read the New York Times story here.

He can see, hear, smell, think and feel pain, but he cannot speak. He is fed by a feeding tube that provides him the nourishment he needs, but leaves him feeling constantly famished.

There I was: A Tennessee transplant without a friend in sight and I don’t know who was more scared: me or my parents. Well, it was Bob who took care of my parents. During my first week at the Rep-Am, he called them and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her.”

And he did.

It wasn’t like he made sure I ate dinner, though he would have. He made sure I grew as a journalist and a professional. He became the voice in my head.

There was the philosophical: “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.”

Then there was the wise (the most important advice for people who attend meetings – ever): “Hear what’s not being said.”

5 Responses

Again avoiding real issues with the reminiscences of an old man or more of the normal pap from the Times Useless…

You might apply this story to the current HealthCare plan your hero’s are trying to push onto the hard working American Taxpayers…Who by last count 60% were against..Huge majority vote there…but is Washington listening..Pelosi is going to jam down our throats one way or another in her constant quest for more power to enslave the average hard working taxpayer to the Government and the Unions.. How about a story about the SEIU thugs, by the Busloads, In Denver…Mmmm didn’t see anything about that in the Useless…

Under your hero’s Healthcare plan your friend will receive the bare minimum of care. He would be forced onto Medicaid which your hero just cut by $500,000,000. million, give or take a hundred million…and would be given the mandatory talk about end of life issues… He is a non-producer as far as your Demoncrat party is concerned and therefore a waste of resources….Oh as Obama says…. take a Pill!

Wow Eddie – last time I checked, this was a blog. which means it’s the portion of timesunion.com that doesn’t always have to be based in news. more specifically, it’s the editors blog, which means that you know that an individual is writing it, and will be voicing their opinions and thoughts. that’s what a blog is.

show a little more class there, eddie. I am disgusted by your complete lack of empathy, concern, and basic human-being behavior. if you don’t care about the topic, fine… then don’t read it – and please don’t comment on it.

Hey, what do you think Obama care is going to give you! So maybe a real look at reality shocked you? Obama care isn’t based on reality and well Rex has done a good job of running the Useless into the ground… Nope I want to be like my a true Leftist Liberal and have 100% lack of empathy, concern and could care less basic human being behavior and I could care less about the topic… Hey I am just following what the Leftist Liberals taught me… Again I believe reality is far from your thought pattern….

Oh I should add, I spent almost 10 years working in Nursing Homes making sure the elderly received as much care as I could give them. I cannot count the number who died in presence with no family around because they couldn’t face reality… The problem was their selfish, greedy, liberal children who stopped by once every four months to transfer their guilt onto the Medical Care givers who spent every day with thier parents and quite often felt a lot of pain for them, the pain their children didn’t feel…
So I feel free to lambast you all, for Obama care is going to cut services and those elderely people are going to receive less care and die quicker so the resources could be spent on their greedy selfish liberal children…. Don’t get me started… and yes I read the Plan….did you?

I, too, consider Bob Veillette my mentor. He was my first Journalism teacher AND my first editor. He taught at the University of Bridgeport, where he pulled this shy, sheltered 18-year-old from Lynn, Massachusetts from the very back of the room and sat me at the typewriter directly in front of him. On purpose. So he could use me to demonstrate how to conduct an interview or, more importantly, how NOT to conduct an interview.

“You’ve gotta learn something, kid,” he told me after one class. “Learn to turn on that professional schizophrenia when you are working–ask the tough questions as ‘a reporter,’ not as the nice, polite little girl your mother raised.”

One semester later, he hired me to be the intern at the Waterbury Republican–a full semester working fulltime as the youngest reporter (and the only female reporter) in the room. He looked after me, too–I worked the 3 p.m. to midnight shift and he always knew when I hit the road back to Bridgeport and what the conditions were. I had orders to call if there were any problems between Waterbury and campus.

I have used his teaching techniques to help young reporters who have worked for me over the years and still hear his voice when I am editing urging me to “be tough. It’s only fair.”

It is safe to say that Bob Veillette is the reason why I stuck it out and became a journalist–print, like my mentor–and why I have made it a trademark of my career to help young reporters learn, as Bob taught me, the craft of getting it right and making it interesting to read in the bargain. I have valued the wisdom of other teachers and editors, but Bob has always been my best inspiration.

We wrote a few times after I graduated, then lost track as life took over. What a horrible surprise to read of his torture now. He would be embarrassed at the attention in print, but I am thankful to have read the TU today. Please write to me offline with information on how to contact Bob and how to donate to his cause.